A member’s deepest, darkest, secrets

I’ve been trading since 1999 and have met a plethora of traders from all over the world. Some of them trade forex, some trade options, and some trade futures. Some are young and some not so young. Some are male and some not so male, (in other words female).

It doesn’t matter where they are from or what they trade (I used to say I would trade toothpicks if there was a market for them), they all have one thing in common – reigning in trading emotions when trading.

I’ve talked about this ad nauseam

I’ve written many articles discussing this issue. Also I’m sure you’ve encountered many more while digging through quagmire we call the web lecturing you on how to handle your emotions when trading. I’m going to venture out on a huge branch here with an assumption that at some point in your trading career you have experienced a boot in the gut when you just get into a trade and it turns against you.

Or I will wager my first born male child (well maybe not) you have felt the sweat beading on your forehead waiting to sting your eyes when the realization hits you that you’ve just lost 50% of your account. On one trade.

I can wax eloquently until the proverbial cows return to the barn about emotions when trading and it will probably just go into the bucket of, “Ya, ya heard all that before,” but if those words are uttered by another trader who has felt the pain, it becomes much more personal.

I can wax eloquently until the proverbial cows return to the barn about emotions when trading and it will probably just go into the bucket of, “Ya, ya heard all that before,” but if those words are uttered by another trader who has felt the pain, it becomes much more personal.

Last week, I received an email from a former QiT member who has recognized how emotions have hobbled his trading and who is now taking the steps to do something about it. He has pronounced that he is going to take control and take responsibility for his trading.

I would like to share his email with you, of course, with his gracious approval.

Dear TraderJanie,

First, I apologize for the length of my email for I’m compelled to share with you my deepest frustration – not about you, dear writer & creator, but rather about myself.

Second, please know how appreciative I am to receive your weekly email messages and how important their content has been to me. THANK YOU for sharing & writing in a wonderfully personal style and offering links and other trading information. And no, afraid not, I have yet to read “Trading in the Zone.” Shame on me…

After reading your most recent email message, introspective thoughts & memories filled my mind. I remember signing up for your service as a charter member, pretty darn near your start date those few years ago; however, I canceled shortly thereafter since I didn’t trust the system you created. Since I didn’t trust the system you created? HUH?? Well, naturally, this is what I’d like to convince myself of, but the truth is, and more honestly stated, I didn’t trust myself to follow the discipline required to follow the system no matter the Market direction or trading results. In hindsight, and from looking at the charts provided in your Sunday’s email message, it’s very obvious where my brokerage account balance would be today had I remained with your service. Oh my…

Since leaving your service, I have spent thousands of dollars for other trading services (ultimately too good to be true, of course) AND personal coaching, constantly looking for the Holy Grail trading system. Although my overall trading results have improved, the cumulative profits have yet to exceed my accumulated training expenses.

Although I can easily share with you boatloads more personal trials & tribulations, not unlike hundreds of other frustrated traders, I believe it best to stop offloading my personal history and to now ask you one simple question before I would feel comfortable clicking on the link in your email below:

How did the ULTRA and the S&P 500 Margin algorithms perform from January 2000 to January 2010?

I admit, my greatest fear is losing additional principle during the next Market crash (or severe correction) and, seeing the above 10-year chart will help us both see the 1,000 words of proof. Of course, I expect both algorithms to hit their respective circuit breakers, something I’d like to see.

Thank you so much for listening and answering my question!

Building Trust

I thanked him for his email and went on to say he most certainly didn’t have to share his trials and tribulations for I have gone through each and every one of them myself. As a matter of fact, it was those very trials and tribulations that catapulted me into algo trading. The way I took control was building QiT.

This fellow spoke about trust and if you don’t trust the system how can you stick with it through the drawdowns (which you’re in 90% of the time)? If you’re like me and have spent years developing the algorithms, your trust is built in. If you’ve been with QiT for years and have seen what it can do through all types of trading environments, you have established that trust. But what do you do if you are new to QiT and have no history with us? How do you build that trust?

First of all, you need to have a very good understanding of what algo trading is. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of covering all the facets of it on the website. I now encourage you to grab a glass of wine and start reading.
You will need to understand data providers and why QiT uses the one we do. You will need to understand the process of backtesting. Why backtesting is probably one of the most important aspects of trading. You need to understand how we place trades and why we do it that way.

Subscribe to our mailing list

Grab Your Free Trial

Categories

Login

Search

Sign up for our Awesome Newsletter

This page is having a slideshow that uses Javascript. Your browser either doesn't support Javascript or you have it turned off. To see this page as it is meant to appear please use a Javascript enabled browser.

Keith

Hi Jane,I just wanted to let you know I really appreciate the trade detail you post on the website. I like seeing the trade history of the past 30 days showing the entry and exit price. I compare this to my exit price just to make sure we are tracking ...

Today has been an awesome day across the board for me. I am at a new equity high on L2-RP, no losses on L3 ETF (to be honest only a handful of trades so far) and close to break even on L3 Ultra. I started trading the ultra signals ...

Subscribing to QiT allows me to save money and time by not having to pay for a datafeed, a trading platform, etc, and not spend hours running the stock screens, managing the datafeed, managing the trade signals, etc. Instead, all I do with QiT is check the signals each evening ...

Your services pay for themselves. I have belonged to many trading services and trading rooms and I find you and your services to be the most honorable and compassionate to the little guy.Keep up the good work,

Thanks for the new ETF Portfolio. I find it meets my trading style, and I can go short inside my IRA.

Great article! As I was reading it, I felt the crosshairs right on my forehead, having committed most of the sins you describe! I have long been a student of Larry Conners, his methods and research, I definitely believe in the system, but have often let my “trader” persona take ...

Trader Janie, I want to tell you how much that I am coming to admire you Your willingness to listen to our concerns and your new and repeated explanations to our concerns as well as your attempts at tweaking what you have already spent so much of your life ...

Marge

It took me only 5 minutes to put my trades onto IB tonight Thanks Jane- so easy and quick. You have lots of TIME putting on the trades. There is no stress and no decisions you have to make!! Easy Peesy!!

Eric

I joined this service because I love the process of Quant trading, removes all of the emotions. Many days I when I was traveling, I couldn't even tell you where the markets closed, but just entered my signals per the system and watched my account grow.

Steve

I love your service and will going live very soon. Only third day on trial here.

Bob

I simply wanted to thank you for adding the Conservative play into QiT. I also appreciate adding the layer of clarity by identifying what each level means on the Signal sheet. Keep up the great work to continue improving QiT.

Roger

My background with Connors and Amibroker gave me greater appreciation for all the work you have put into getting the trading results that attracted me to QiT. I thank you for your efforts and look forward to continuing.

Let me share with you two different perpectives of the QT system of algo trading.In 1978, I joined a large Wall Street firm as a retail broker. In the following 13 years as a broker and as a Principal, I saw several things that kept most brokerage clients from making ...

I know that drawdowns are inevitable. In the past, this made me lose money by hopping from system A to system B to system C etc. Losing and losing and losing. Always leaving right before the winning periods got in :-) That is why I like Quantitrader. I will stay ...

Jeff

Thanks for the awesome service. You really have something special here.